Daughter tells jury of Telford retail park tragedy
The daughter of a woman who died after being hit by a van on a busy Telford retail park has described the moment she saw her mother disappear under the vehicle.
Great-grandmother Janet Lane, 73, of Trench, was knocked down at Wrekin Retail Park on November 22, 2016.
The driver of the Volkswagen Transporter, 55-year-old Andrew Charles Richards, denies causing death by careless driving.
Mrs Lane’s daughter, Alison Offland, told Shrewsbury Crown Court she was standing on the pavement when she saw the van collide with her mother, who was “one step away” from the opposite kerb.
Mrs Offland said the vehicle had turned right out of a lane in the car park onto the service road in front of the row of shops, where Mrs Lane was crossing the road.
She said: “I was watching him as he pulled out of the junction, I didn’t take my eyes off him. All that time he was looking left.”
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Mrs Offland said she kept watching the van as it was in the middle of the road rather than the left hand lane. As the van passed her, she and Richards made eye contact before she saw the back of her mother through the windscreen and driver’s window.
She then saw her mother fall to the ground as the vehicle made contact. Mrs Lane died at the scene of multiple head and chest injuries.
The collision was witnessed by other shoppers including Jean Moore and Mikila Holding.
Mrs Moore told the jury: “Everything happened in slow motion. I just remember seeing the gentleman who was driving, he was looking down to his left-hand side and then the impact happened.”
Miss Holding said there was nothing obscuring the driver’s view of Mrs Lane as she crossed the road in front of him.
Richards, of Orchard Close, Cressage, claims he was unable to see Mrs Lane as the ‘A’ pillar between his windscreen and driver’s window caused a blind spot.
The trial continues.
